Welcome to The WonkLine, a daily 10 a.m. roundup of the latest news about health care, the economy, national security, immigration and climate policy. This is what we’re reading. Tell us what you found in the comments section below, and subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, you can now follow The Wonk Room on Twitter.

Climate

“Drought for a fifth year running is driving more than 23 million east Africans in seven countries” — Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Uganda are worst hit — “towards severe hunger and destitution, international aid agency Oxfam said on Tuesday.”

Health Care

“Two members of the Senate Finance Committee plan to put their Democratic colleagues on the spot on Tuesday by offering amendments on whether to give uninsured Americans the opportunity to join a government insurance program.” The amendments are largely expected to fail.

A new Kaiser Health Tracking Poll “finds that public support for health reform ended its summer slide, reversed course and moved modestly upwards in September.”

“[A] small but growing group of lawmakers is pressing for state constitutional amendments that would outlaw a crucial element of the health care plans under discussion in Washington: the requirement that nearly everyone buy insurance or pay a penalty,” the New York Times reports.

A Virginia woman who reported to police that a violent Mexican smuggling cartel had her brother and was demanding thousands of dollars for his release helped save eleven undocumented immigrants who were also being held hostage.

National Security

The New York Times reports that “an intercity bus crowded with passengers struck a roadside bomb in the contested southern province of Kandahar [Afghanistan] on Tuesday and exploded, killing 30 civilians and wounding 39 others.”

The Washington Post reports that “the Obama administration is laying plans to cut Iran’s economic links to the rest of the world if talks this week over the country’s nuclear ambitions founder.” “While officials stress that they hope Iran will agree to open its nuclear program to inspection, they are prepared by year’s end to make it increasingly difficult for Iranian companies to ship goods around the world.”

The interim Honduran government “has closed two news broadcasters and suspended some constitutional rights in response to the country’s ongoing political crisis. In Tegucigalpa, officials say they are concerned that supporters of ousted President Manuel Zelaya, who has taken refuge in the Brazilian embassy, might seek to destabilize the country.”

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